It’s Pete Hegseth’s theology that ought to concern us

You may or may not like Pete Hegseth’s politics, but it’s his theology that ought to concern you more.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. Secretary of Defense has ties to one of the most chauvinistic and vitriolic leaders of the Christian nationalist far right, Doug Wilson.

Mother Jones Senior Editor Kiera Butler has called Wilson the patriarch of the TheoBros.

BNG has written extensively about the TheoBros, a loosely defined group of know-it-all Christian men who tend to be Calvinists and always are complementarians, meaning they believe God created the world for men to have authority over women and children. Many, but not all, TheoBros also prove to be white supremacists.

What once was a fringe movement within conservative Christianity has gained national attention in the last decade as Calvinism has grown in influence among Southern Baptists — still by far the nation’s largest Protestant denomination — and as the Religious Right has been subsumed into MAGA ideology.

Trump’s nomination of Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has raised alarms because he has no direct experience for the job, is a hardline Trump loyalist, believes women shouldn’t serve in combat and has been accused of sexual assault.

While the U.S. Constitution rightly prohibits any religious test for holding public office, Hegseth illustrates a case where religious identity is about more than religion. He comes from a branch of conservative Christianity that wants to impose its narrow views on the rest of society.

“Hegseth illustrates a case where religious identity is about more than religion.”

Hegseth told a Nashville, Tenn., Christian publication: “If in three generations we can go from faithful Christian households to anti-American households, we are toast. We stand in the wreckage wondering if we can rebuild.”

One of his solutions to “rebuild America” is advancing what’s known as the “Classic Christian school,” a specific structure of private schools that uses the Bible as the foundation and standard of truth in every subject and teaches all subjects “based on the principle that God is the Creator of all that exists.”

The Association of Classical Christian Schools was founded in 1993 by Doug Wilson and now encompasses 500 schools in 48 states and 17 other countries.

Hegseth and his wife, Jenny, chose where to live based on proximity to one of these schools.

They chose Jonathan Edwards Classical Academy in Whites Creek, Tenn., he told Nashville Christian Family: “We drew a 20-mile radius around the school convinced that’s what we wanted for our kids, and we moved. We thought we were moving to a school but were also moving to a church that has incredible intentionality about covenant Christianity and living out faith in generational homes.”

That church, Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship in Goodlettsville, Tenn., is part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a network of churches linked to Wilson and his theology.

Wilson leads Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. The Idaho Capital-Sun says of him: “Wilson and his allies have a rigid patriarchal belief system and don’t believe in the separation of church and state. They support taking away the right to vote from most women, barring non-Christians from holding office and criminalizing the LGBTQ community.”

Hegseth has multiple ties to Wilson and the various enterprises he’s founded and influences.

On the “Extremely American” podcast, Wilson recently said one of his goals is to get like-minded people into positions of influence. He later told the Idaho Capital-Sun he supports Hegseth’s nomination: “I was grateful for Trump’s win and believe that it is much more likely that Christians with views similar to mine will receive positions in the new administration.”

Those who monitor religious extremism in America are sounding red-alert warnings about Hegseth’s mix of politics and theology.

Matthew D. Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, called Hegseth “one of the most extreme far-right figures ever nominated to a cabinet post, at least in modern memory.”

What’s extreme to some Americans today is just normal to others.

NJ.com columnist Paul Mulshine recently wrote in defense of Hegseth in general and in defense of his controversial tattoos in particular.

Hegseth, an admirer of the Crusades, sports the Latin words “Deus Vult” on his bicep and a Jerusalem Cross on this chest.

“Deus Vult” translates as “God wills it.” The phrase dates to 1096 in the first Crusades. More recently, it has been adopted by Christian nationalists and far-right militia groups as well as perpetrators of racial violence.

Likewise, the Jerusalem Cross dates to the Crusades and has seen more frequent usage among some Christians. It is the combination of that symbol that caused some of Hegseth’s own colleagues in the National Guard to report him as a possible insider threat.

Back at NJ.com, Mulshine says there’s nothing to see here. Calling the tattoos symbols of white supremacism or Christian nationalism is “quite a stretch,” he wrote.

“The one Latin scholar I know, my old classmate Peter Stravinskas, said these reports represent a total distortion of reality. ‘Deus Vult was the motto of the Crusades, which were a good thing,’ said Stravinskas, who is now a priest.”

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